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In response to Tristan's post which is in response to Aaron's post, the logo for Canonical is probably not accidental. Merriam-Webster defines canonical as:

of, relating to, or forming a canon

And a canon is:

a : an accepted principle or rule
b : a criterion or standard of judgment
c : a body of principles, rules, standards, or norms

But it also says canonical means:

conforming to a general rule or acceptable procedure

Which Canonical most certainly doesn't. Well, it may conform to free software, but certainly not to the widely accepted practices of proprietary software.

So, Canonical is a cannon designed to change/improve/destroy the currently canonical definition of how software is supposed to be created, sold and supported, thus forming the new software development canon? Sounds good to me.

This past Saturday, June 2, Izzy and Beth Vonnahme helped me tear out more of the house.

The first thing Izzy and I did when we got there was move a 4.5 foot cast-iron tub out of the downstairs bathroom and up a flight of stairs. That will wear you out in a hurry. Shortly after that, Beth arrived and removed the counter, cabinets, and toilet out of the upstairs bathroom while Izzy and I finished removing the floor from the downstairs bathroom.

We then proceeded to the kitchen. Since these cabinets were built and installed on-site, there was going to be no elegant way to remove them, so we had fun with a sledgehammer. The counter itself, as well as the sink was saved, though because the Formica counter was simply set on the cabinets, not secured to it! And guess what! There was mold behind the cabinets that were on the floor! Surprised?

So, the "gutting to-do countdown" is as follows:

1. Rest of the kitchen (the buffet, closet, and cabinet over buffet)
2. Laundry room
3. Upstairs bathroom floor and walls
4. Laundry room (floor, cabinets, and probably walls)

We'll be working on the 9th, but taking the 16th off for our Anniversary (June 14).

Back story: one of Elizabeth's current favorite phrases is "Oh-tay," her version of "OK." It's often (but not always) said in response to requests or statements of information.

The other day, Crystal asked, as she often does, if she could borrow one of my t-shirts. Elizabeth responded with an enthusiastic "Oh-tay!" I hadn't realized she had taken over my clothes.

In my reading of the humorous programming languages LOLCode and LOLPython I came across the series of letters "kthxbye." Not being part of the "hip" crowd when it comes to abbreviating my speech, I had no clue what this meant. I plugged "kthxbye" into Google, and as I expected, the first result was a definition from the Urban Dictionary. The definition's closing sentiment, "Humanity is doomed," accurately reflects my thoughts about abbreviated words used in IM and text messaging.

kthxbye is a

shortening of "k thx bye". The K is short for OK, which is short for oll korrect, which is a facetious alteration of All Correct. thx is short for thanx which is a facetious alteration of thanks which is short for thank you. Bye is short for goodbye, which is an alteration of God be with you. "kthxbye" is the pinnacle of English's advancement, shortening "All correct, Thank you, God be with you." into seven lowercase letters. Humanity is doomed. Obviously, it is used to end a conversation fast that you don't want to be in anymore.

Last week (May 26), Izzy and I spent most of our day tearing out the downstairs bathroom. A couple of fun stories before I mention the point of this post.

1) When I went to remove the cabinet above the toilet, one of the screws would not back out. So, as with many things, the cabinet was removed by brute force. I noticed the aforementioned screw was rusted about 1/4" from the end. When we removed the wall, we found out why: that particular screw had gone through the sheet rock and into the sewer pipe behind the wall. It didn't matter that much, since a sewer pipe isn't pressurized, but it might have leaked moisture into the wall cavity behind the wall (which happened to the area under the stairs).

2) When we pulled out the bathroom counter/cabinets we found a classic case of "Doin' what it takes to get by." The area behind the doors on the counter (center section) was painted, but the areas behind the drawers (which you would never see) was not. Nor was the area between the counter and the wall (side of the counter). So, we had (even more) fully exposed paper-on-sheetrock. And yes, much more mold.

Needless to say, the "inside" (stud side) of all the bathroom walls, as well as the walls opposite those walls, were covered with "3D" mold. Fun.

But as to the title of this post: when Izzy and I pulled up the floor, we had to stop half way because the 4.5 foot cast-iron tub sat on the other sheet of plywood (2x6 elevated floor under which pipes were run). The tub drain would not yield to any tool I had, even one I had bought to remove the upstairs tub. What did it take? Going to Lowe's and buying a tool like this. That drain came right out. Amazing how easy things are when you have the right tool.

Even in the midst of the, at times, rather discouraging process of gutting and rebuilding the house, God still supplies and provides. Last Saturday (May 26) Crystal and I "happened" upon our local Sears having a sidewalk sale. I say "happened" because we weren't planning on going there. We were at a store next door, and Sears was having a sidewalk sale, and a local church was doing a donation only hot-dog fundraiser. So, yes, the food was the draw. As we were wondering around the merchandise, after drooling over the very nice 1/2 price Kenmore Elite refrigerator, what should we discover but a brand-new five-burner gas cooktop. Did this gas cook top have a 25% discount? No, more than that. 50% maybe? No, amazingly enough, it was marked down to less than one-third of its original $990 price. $270, to be exact. Since we had to tear out the kitchen anyway (more on that in an upcoming post), we're already lined up for a kitchen remodel. And now we'll have a beautiful cooktop to go with it.

If you find any good deals on stand-alone ovens, let us know!

It's nice to see Dell promoting Linux now that they are selling machines with Linux pre-installed. For a quick overview on what this Linux and Open Source thing is all about, take a look at this short video.

(Via: Joey Stanford)

For those of you who have been wondering what this "RSS" thing is, and who don't really know what I mean when I say "subscribe to updates from my blog," Common Craft has a cute little video entitled "RSS in Plain English." Check it out below, and if you have any further questions, drop me a line via the contact page.

Click To Play